1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fuel cap assemblies and more particularly to tethered fuel caps for motor vehicles and the like.
2. Disclosure Information
Almost all motor vehicles have a fuel tank which can be filled with liquid fuel like gasoline or diesel fuel. The fuel is most commonly supplied to the tank through a filler spout which is closed off by a fuel cap.
The fuel cap is disengageable from the filler spout and most commonly has no tether to secure it to the motor vehicle. As a consequence, the fuel cap can be inadvertently left behind and lost after filling the fuel tank.
Past attempts to tether the fuel cap to the motor vehicle have not been particularly successful. The major problem is that the tether in the past, most commonly a chain, allows the fuel cap to drop uncontrollably until the tether is fully extended. This uncontrollable drop often allows the fuel cap to bang against the side of the vehicle which can result in scratching or nicking the painted surface of the vehicle.
In some cases, the tether itself, made from metal chain, nicks or scratches the exterior surface of the motor vehicle. In addition, if the motor vehicle travelled with the fuel cap disengaged, the fuel cap and chain tether would violently bang against the exterior surface intensively denting, marring, or scratching it. The repeated hitting of the fuel cap and tether against the motor vehicle would after a short period of time create a marred area on the exterior of the vehicle which can also cause rust problems if the metal surface becomes exposed through the paint. As a consequence, tethered gas caps have never been popular for motor vehicles.
The recent rise in popularity of self-service gasoline stations has accentuated the problem of motorists forgetting the caps at the station or improperly putting them on so they can disengage from the filler pipe spout and fall off. A tethered gas cap is needed which does not marr the exterior appearance of the vehicle through normal usage but still allows the fuel cap to become sufficiently separated from the filler pipe spout so as to not obstruct it from the introduction of a fuel pump nozzle.